Musician, Meritorious Artist Quoc Nam: The man who "revives the soul of the countryside"

(Baonghean) - His musical talent was discovered early, in more than 40 years of professional artistic activities, he has composed and successfully conducted many music programs of Cai Luong opera, Nghe-Tinh folk songs and many independent songs, but it was not until "Dieu Vi Giam La Em" was born that musician, Meritorious Artist Quoc Nam was truly known by a large audience at home and abroad and considered him as the one who "revives the soul of the countryside" through music...

Emotions sublimated

Interestingly, the song “Dieu Vi Giam La Em” was composed by musician Quoc Nam from a poem written by a close friend of his in high school. Musician Quoc Nam, whose real name is Tran Quoc Nam, and poet Le Quang Thang (pen name Le Van) were classmates at Phan Dinh Phung High School (Ha Tinh) from 1970 to 1972. During the war, the school was evacuated to Thach Xuan commune, Thach Ha district. Afterwards, Quoc Nam went to Hanoi to receive formal music training from experts and returned to his hometown, while Le Quang Thang joined the army and “went South” to make a career. Occasionally, they meet each other two or three times a year in their hometown with the sentiment of “one stays, the other goes”.

One summer morning in 2010, Mr. Le Quang Thang from Ho Chi Minh City returned to Ha Tinh to visit his hometown and invited musician Quoc Nam to have breakfast. At that meeting, Le Quang Thang gave him the poetry collection “Forget and Remember”. While flipping through the collection, musician Quoc Nam suddenly stopped at the poem “Listening to Nghe folk songs between friends”. Right from the opening verses, he found a commonality: “Between friends of the same age and hometown/ Listening to you sing Nghe folk songs/ The lullaby is like a whisper/ Taking us back to the old childhood shore...”. And Quoc Nam began to ponder and “conceive” the song “The Vi Giam melody is you”.

Musician Quoc Nam (left) talks with reporters

Since he was a musician, conductor and manager of the Ha Tinh Dance and Drama Troupe, the times he took the art troupe to perform in Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau, Con Dao, the Central Highlands, and even Thailand... the Nghe An people far from home have left Quoc Nam with extremely deep feelings. One night in June 2010, many thoughts and searches seemed to have converged, many profound experiences were inspired by the poetic soul of the song "Listening to Nghe An folk songs between friends", musician Quoc Nam wrote the song "Vi Giam is you" in one go. He called and sang it to Le Quang Thang. Le Quang Thang was moved and cried "heartily" like a child, because Quoc Nam had truly "revived the soul of the homeland".

Now, “Dieu Vi Giam La Em” is performed by many famous artists, appearing in many albums of People’s Artist Thu Hien, Meritorious Artist Thanh Loan, singers Anh Tho, To Nga, Phuong Thanh, Thu Trang, Huyen Trang, Bui Le Man, Nguyet Anh, Thuy Dung... And the song “Dieu Vi Giam La Em” has contributed to making the name of young singer Bui Le Man familiar to the public. It can also be affirmed that Bui Le Man has “nailed” his stage name with “Dieu Vi Giam La Em”, which is the happiness of the singer and musician. But before that, the person who brought “Dieu Vi Giam La Em” to the public was singer To Nga. Since the end of 2010, To Nga has sung and recorded audio for the Nghe An fellow countrymen association in Hanoi, Saigon and abroad.

Almost all meetings of Nghe An compatriots in all regions of the country requested to hear “Dieu Vi Giam La Em”. In 2012, VTV1 Television Center in Da Nang met with musician Quoc Nam to introduce “Dieu Vi Giam La Em” in the New Works program. In 2014, Vietnam Television VTC1 introduced the author and the work with the two voices of To Nga and Huyen Trang. In particular, the song “Dieu Vi Giam La Em” has a solid position in professional singing competitions, especially at the National Television Singing Contest - Sao Mai 2013.

Now, musician and Meritorious Artist Quoc Nam is used to the sound of the phone ringing during his lunch break or at midnight. That is when, in a certain “time zone” in countries around the world: Poland, Russia, Germany, France..., people from Nghe An are meeting and singing “Dieu vi giam la em”, and do not forget to call the author to share the happiness of meeting the love of their homeland in the far away sky.

Poem "Listening to folk songs of Nghe An among friends" by Le Quang Thang.

Giving wings to folk songs and folk songs

Musician, Meritorious Artist Quoc Nam was born in 1952 in Bong Son quarter, now Ha Tinh city. Following his family to evacuate to Thach Huong (Thach Ha), when he was in secondary school, Quoc Nam was fortunate to meet his grandfather, People's Artist Chau Loan, the late Nhuyen (Vinh Linh), who discovered his talent and nurtured it. The late Nhuyen's family had a theater troupe south of Ben Hai bridge. Because of the war, the North and the South were separated, and the late Nhuyen carried his grandchild, People's Artist Chau Loan, to the North to work at the Folk Song and Traditional Music Department, Voice of Vietnam Radio. Being "taught the profession" early by the late Nhuyen, during his high school years, Quoc Nam already knew how to use musical instruments such as the two-stringed fiddle, monochord, bamboo flute, mandolin, guitar, mangzo... In 1970, he both learned the profession and assisted in teaching at the provincial art school. After that, Quoc Nam went to study in Hanoi. In 1977, he returned to work as a flute player at the Nghe-Tinh Opera Troupe. After a year, he became the orchestra conductor, then deputy conductor, then head of the Ha Tinh Song and Dance Troupe.

During the period of entering the province from 1976 to 1991, Quoc Nam had field trips, collected, composed, met and attached himself to the countryside that gave birth to Vi Giam folk songs. Being "immersed" in the Vi Giam source, what always urged him was how to create new vitality for traditional music in modern musical life. Therefore, he also experimented and left his mark as a composer for many plays of the troupe such as: Kim Van Kieu, Nguoi Trong Mong (a play about Mr. Phan Dinh Phung), Tong Tran Cuc Hoa, Hoa Khoi Gao Chong... He was also a storyteller about the people and the homeland through songs such as: Le nao quen em (About 10 girls at Dong Loc crossroads), Huong que, Nhung sao, Tuong tich cay Mau tu, Non nuoc Thien Cam, Chon que, Doi bo vi giam... In 2007, Quoc Nam was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist.

Song "Vi Giam Rhythm is You" - singers: Dang Thuat, Bui Le Man. Source: youtube

Explaining the success of the song “Vi Giam is Em”, musician Quoc Nam said that it was because the song not only has a melody, but also has a strong folk style such as being popular, easy to sing, easy to touch people's hearts. The difficulty in choosing the form of performance is composing on the Vi Giam melody but with a new rhythm, not “old-fashioned” the folk song but promoting the beauty of the Vi Giam melody on the modern musical rhythm.

“The Vi Giam melody is you” is written in the A minor key (Amoll) with a 7th scale change, 2/4 time signature, sung in 4/4 time signature, not in a marching rhythm but lyrical, the song has a two-part form. The first part with 6 stylized sentences on the Vi Nong Thuong melody, Abitum rhythm opens with “Roi mot chieu nghe em hat dan ca...”, the second part from “Em cu choi anh no cho va no loi”. The first part is in the A scale, the second part switches to the G scale, changing the color but sometimes still falls on the A main note, creating a feeling of completeness and tightness. The song goes on a light rumba tempo, using the A main note axis close to the characteristics of Nghe folk songs (La - do - mi), sometimes falling on the main note, that is the influence of the “xuong xe” style in Cai Luong that Quoc Nam was more or less attached to, creating a very natural encounter, blending and supporting each other. “The Vi Giam melody is my song” has evolved from the Vi Giam style to go further, to have a popular character with more regions. That is also the way Quoc Nam both “revives the soul of the homeland” of people far from home, and is also a way to repay the Southern land where the lyricist, Mr. Le Quang Thang, and the Nghe people far from home gave him the inspiration to write this song.

Quoc Nam confided that, having devoted his life to Vi Giam folk songs, what motivates him every day is still in 6 words: "collect", "preserve" and "develop" the value of Vi Giam heritage. And he never stops wondering how to help Vi Giam folk songs fly far and wide...

Ngo Kien